In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: In our Bibles this morning, let's turn to 1 John. We've come as far as chapter two. I think we looked at the first two verses, but we need to back up for a moment and take a look at those things. So, as you're turning there, let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word. Lord, you tell us in your word that you honor your word above your name, and your name is above every name. Lord, we want to thank you this morning that you've given us your word. You put in writing those things that you desire of us and the promises you've made to us so that we won't be confused.

And so, Lord, we would just ask again this morning as we look at this and begin to understand what it means to be a Christian. The whole theme of 1 John is this idea of authentic Christianity. Not Christian in name only, not those who give lip service to the Lord, but those who have given the Lord their whole heart and are in an intimate relationship with him.

And so, Father, speak to us this morning. It's so important. It's so easy to be religious; it's so easy to fall into that trap. But Lord, we would just ask this morning that you would take us much deeper than that. Paul was probably the most religious person in the Bible, but after his conversion, he didn't want anything to do with it. He just said, "That I might know him. That I might know him."

Oh Father, may that be the cry of our heart. I want to know you, not about you. I want to know you. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, and all God's kids would say: Amen.

Well, as we came through chapter one, I told you there are three false confessions found as John is dealing with the last of the days of the first century. All of the other apostles have been martyred. Peter was taken out of the Roman prison and crucified upside down. Most scholarship believes that on the same day, Paul was taken the Appian way and was beheaded.

And so we're moving out of the first century. We're 70 or so odd years into the Christian faith, and it's a time where now the church seems to be cooling in their passion and relationship with the Lord. That's one of the things that John is going to address. But secondly, there's false teaching coming in—this antinomianism, this hyper-grace—that you can live any way you want to live as long as you worship God in your spirit, it's okay.

And followed by Gnosticism—the early developments of Gnosticism teaching is coming to the fore now at this particular time—and John's having to address these things because he's trying to bring us back to faith in Christ, back to this authentic Christianity. And I think this has always been the battle of the church.

There are two things that exist today that are called the church, and they couldn't be more in opposition to each other. One is an organization with all of its creeds and all of its rules and all of its regulations, and you've got to go through the membership class so you become a member of the church; you have to join it. And then it has all of its trappings and rappings, all of its form and practice.

The other thing is an organism: the body of Christ, born of the spirit, born into this thing called the church, regenerated by the spirit, renewed by the spirit, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the bride of Christ in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ in this intimate relationship with him, having been born of the spirit.

And again, Paul, when he writes to the Galatians, uses the two people: the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these two entities are at odds with each other. It's easy to be religious; it's easy to fall into and just go through the motions. But to serve Jesus with your whole heart will cost you everything, but it'll be a cost that you'll be glad to have paid when you get on the other side of this thing. Can I get an amen?

Paul said, listen, the sufferings of this present life, they're not even worthy to be compared. And he'd been there; he was outside of Lystra when he was stoned to death, and he said, "I knew a man some 14 years ago, in the body, out of the body, I'm not real sure, but that man was caught up into the third heaven, the place where God is."

And he saw things that were so incredible that it would be unlawful for me to try to put them to words. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it hasn't entered your heart in your wildest imaginations, the things that God has prepared for them that love him. And so he would say that it doesn't matter what you've got to go through here to get there; do it. You won't be disappointed. Amen?

And so John is picking up on this theme when he's talking about authentic Christianity. And authentic Christianity has nothing to do with the head so much as it does with the heart. You can know about Jesus in your head. You can have gone through catechism in the Catholic church, you've gone through an indoctrination in the Jehovah's Witness church, you've gone through and done your missionary works in the Mormon church.

Listen, there's 4,200 religions in the world. You can strap a bomb to your chest and blow people up if you're of the Muslim persuasion. People can do awful things in the name of religion. In fact, it was the religious leaders of the day that crucified Jesus. The Romans gave them permission, but they did it.

But the truth of the matter is, Jesus was crucified, as we're going to see this morning, for the sins of the world—for yours and mine—that we might be brought back into a relationship. I think it diminishes the work of Christ and it diminishes the value of his blood and of his sacrifice.

I think it's an affront, and I think it should be obnoxious to our Father if we only become religious, seeing the price that was paid by Jesus Christ to bring us back into relationship with the Father, that from our heart we could cry, "Abba Father, my Father, my God, my Savior, my Lord, the living spirit in me."

And so again, the theme is authentic Christianity. And he says if we say that we have fellowship, if we say we know him and we're in constant contact with him, if we say we have fellowship with him and we're walking in darkness—our manner of life is in the world, immoral, sinful—then he says you're a liar. You were never born again. You're a liar. That's a false confession.

But then he says, if you say that you have no bent to sin as a Christian, then you deceive yourself. And so what's the balance here? That's what we're going to look at as we walk through the rest of the verses of chapter two. But backing up to chapter one, he says if we say that we have no sin, no sin nature still, we still don't have that traitor living in us. How many know that you have a traitor living in you?

Guest (Male): Paul again, writing to the church at Galatia said, listen, the flesh wars against the spirit. Has anybody been in that battle this week? And the spirit against the flesh, they're contrary, so that you cannot do the things you're supposed to do. But he goes on to say if you're born of the spirit, then walk in the spirit, because if you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. You can't. And that's John's premise as we walk through this epistle.

He said if you say that you don't have this sin nature still to battle, you deceive yourself. And listen to what he says—this is so important, the pivotal verse in the entire epistle of 1 John: "If you confess..." If you confess your sin—the word *homologeo* there means that you're acknowledging, "God, you're right. You're right, I'm wrong. What I just did, unacceptable. I'm making no excuses for it, I'm not justifying it."

If you will confess your sins, he is faithful and he is justified in doing this to forgive us of our sins. That's the first step. But see, the second step—listen carefully this morning—exposes your heart. Because the true believer doesn't just want forgiveness; religious people want forgiveness. Religious people, I've heard them say, "Well, I got my fire insurance." Well, if that's what you think you got, you didn't get anything.

You see, they want to continue in sin, but they want the forgiveness, they want the grace of God, they want heaven to be their home, but they want to live for the world while they're here. I want you to see the contrast here, I want you to see as John is writing about authentic Christianity, he says the heart of the true believer is just not confessing their sins to get forgiveness. But he says, "and to cleanse." *Katharizō* is our Greek word there. It comes almost in the English as a direct transliteration: to be cauterized, to bleed the poison out.

We who are truly born again, we just don't want forgiveness—we need that, we ask for that, that's a given—but we hate the fact that that thing is still in us that would cause us to sin. We don't want just grace; we want cleansing, we want deliverance, we want healing. Like David in the Psalms said, "I'm weak, Lord, I need that you would heal me. I need that you would reach in and pull this heart of stone out and put a heart of flesh in. I need the strength of the Holy Spirit because I want to live and walk in a way that is pleasing to the Father."

Herein is the heart of the true believer. The true believer knows he needs forgiveness. How many you know you need forgiveness? Aren't you glad that by one sacrifice, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14, by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those that he made holy? That's us. And aren't you glad that verse 17 says that your sins and your iniquities he remembers no more? That's forgiveness. But the truth of the matter is we still struggle with these things.

And the true heart of the true believer, the authentic Christian, he hates that the sin nature is still in him. He knows the divine nature is there, but now he sees this struggle and he hates the things of the flesh. Sin is become exceedingly sinful to him. He understands, the true Christian understands what it cost God the Father, what it cost Jesus Christ to rid us of that sin.

And he understands that work of the Holy Spirit in his heart to constantly convict him and cleanse him and lead him and guide him into all truth. He is in this great struggle. That's what Paul said in Romans chapter 7. I have it in my Bible above that chapter, "the great struggle," because Paul after 30 years of serving the Lord, he says, "the things that I should be doing, I don't, and the things I shouldn't be doing, I do." Any of you been there?

"Oh, wretched man." You see, Paul understands sin is wretched. "Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" What a picture in the Greek. You maybe don't get it when you read through Romans chapter 7, but in the days of the Roman Empire, if you murdered somebody, one of the ways they would send you to death is they would literally tie the corpse to your back.

And as the corpse would rot and the disease would infect the rotting flesh, it would transfer into your body and you died a slow, miserable death in prison, having this body strapped to you that was killing you. And Paul takes that picture and he says, "This old man, the flesh man, it's like this dead body that is strapped to me. And the death that is in that and the disease that's in that body is affecting me. Who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?"

And that's exactly how the Christian feels about sin. But he says, "I thank God that Jesus Christ has delivered me." He cut the bands that bound that old man to me and he set me free. Whom the son set free is free indeed. We don't have to live under the influence of that old man any longer. We can choose to do it, but you don't have to.

And you don't get to say, "Well, it's grace and I can live any way I want." No, the grace of God, as Paul writes to Titus, that young pastor, he said the grace that brings salvation is appeared to all of us, it's for all of us. John's going to pick up on that in a few moments. He said that grace that saved us teaches us to live godly and righteous and holy in this present life.

It never gives an excuse; true grace never gives an excuse to sin because we have a different heart. John is going to say things like you can't habitually practice sin as a way of life because his seed remains in you; you're born of the spirit. You just can't do it.

And so he's telling us true Christianity, authentic Christianity has two components. Of course we seek forgiveness. The moment you mess up, you get in traffic, you say something you shouldn't say, or maybe you're mature enough now that you think things you shouldn't think, they don't come out your mouth anymore. Or you do, you know, we are capable as Christians of doing the most heinous of sins. Can I get an amen?

But you're quickly convicted, are you not? "Oh Lord, I confess. Man, I shouldn't have acted like that, I shouldn't have thought that, I shouldn't have allowed that image into my mind, I shouldn't have said that. Lord, forgive me," because we have a heart—we have the Father's heart—and those things are grievous to us. But it goes even deeper than that, listen guys, listen gals, listen gang, it goes deeper than that.

We cry to be cleansed of it. Cleanse me of it. Remove the very desire of it from me. Scrub me, David said, with hyssop that I might be clean. "Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Give me clean hands, give me a pure heart." That's the cry of the authentic Christian every time he steps out of bounds.

If you say that you're not in this struggle, the flesh against the spirit, you deceive yourself. But if you will acknowledge that what you did was not acceptable before the Father, he will be just and faithful to not only forgive you, but the cry of the true believer's heart is, "Cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Bleed it out of me, cauterize me, Lord. Take it from me. I don't want anything more to do with it."

I had someone ask me recently, "What is going to be the most special thing to you about heaven when you get there?" And before I could even answer, they started telling me some things. And I said, "Well, I will tell you this. For me, there's a lot going on in heaven that's going to be exciting, don't get me wrong, but for me, the thought and the reality that I will never break my Father's heart again will be enough. That I will finally, ultimately be sanctified."

Oh, I know now, positionally in Christ I'm sanctified. And I know now I'm working on it experientially. I'm trying to bring this body under control and beat it daily like Paul said into submission. But ultimately when I step on the other side of this thing, I'll never have to bow my head in shame and say, "Father, forgive me. I broke your heart again." And I'll never have to ask for cleansing. I will be clean. Can you imagine?

When we really experience real "no condemnation." Lord says we have that now, but man, I'm going to tell you it's hard when you're still... it's hard to soar with eagles when you're walking with turkeys. And so, we have a turkey in our yard, and I'm trying to figure out a name for her. She's a hen. And she's always on my truck or she's on our trailer... Anyway, I digress.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just not only to forgive but to cleanse us from that unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned... See, here's the idea. Because an unregenerate person who's just a religious person can say, "Well, I'm not sinning. God knows my heart." Yeah, he does; it's desperately wicked and needs to be fixed. Because the unbeliever will, the unregenerate will always try to justify their sin. The truly born-again person makes no excuse for it. Cleanse me of it, wash me, forgive me.

Because if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Man, his word cooks me, doesn't it cook in you? I wish I could tell you as your pastor for almost 30 years that I'm perfect, but I ain't. I'm not. I know that I'm saved by grace and I know I'm not doing anything that would disqualify me from ministry, but I ain't there yet. Oh, I thank God that I'm not what I used to be. And you better thank God that too.

And I know that I'm moving forward presently, but I ain't what I ought to be yet either. I'm in progress, aren't you? I'm still under construction. How many still under construction? Jesus laid the foundation; how are your walls coming along? Is the roof on yet? Are they insulating and wiring your building yet? Because we're in process here.

Now watch what he says when he goes into chapter two. No chapter breaks here; we put those in so that we could give addresses to the verses we wanted to remember, but no chapter breaks when this is written. He lays out these three things. If you say that you don't have a traitor still living in you, if you say that there's still not the flesh to be warred against as one who's born of the spirit, then you deceive yourself.

But if you will confess your sins—agree with God that that was wrong and agree quickly with God that that was wrong—not only is he faithful, but he's also justified because of what his son did, he's justified to forgive you, of course. But also to cleanse you of it, because that's the heart of the believer. I don't want to just be forgiven, I don't want it in me anymore.

To me, it's like a dead man strapped to my back. I want it gone. But if you justify your sin, if you don't have that heart to want it gone, then his word is not in you. You're not born again. Because that's the evidence of authentic Christianity, not that we don't sin—we struggle with it, we hate it.

He says, "My little children"—and that word is *teknon* in the Greek, it means little born ones—and John is using it in a specific reference to you little born-again ones. You are the children of God, you've been born of the spirit. My little born-again ones, these things I write unto you... This is the second reason why he's writing: "that you sin not." That should always be the standard.

He's saying to the antinomianists: no, no, sin should not reign in your mortal body. John is probably remembering—he probably read the epistles that Paul wrote—he's probably remembering Romans chapter 6 when he said, "Oh well then, where sin abounds, if grace abounds the more, shall we not just continue in sin that grace might abound?" And Paul said, "God forbid! God forbid!"

Listen, we are dead to sin and alive to Christ. God forbid that we should continue in that manner of living any longer. We're a new creature in Christ Jesus; old things are passed away, all things are become brand new. We put on Jesus, we put off the flesh. We've got a different heart now. We've got a different mind, we've got a different worldview, we've got a different ambition, we've got a different direction.

And it's to serve the Lord. So he says, here's the standard: that you sin not. And then he says, "And if any man sin..." The word "if" there is in the class condition in the Greek, it would mean "if and when," because there's going to be a "when." Amen? We don't deceive ourselves; we know that the moment we're born again, we're not going to get through this life without messing up.

Listen, there are children in this church that we've had to over the years change their diapers because they mess up. But if they were in the youth group and we were still changing their diapers, there'd be something wrong. Amen? We used to have on the nursery that scripture: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."

But we don't expect that in the youth group, and we certainly don't expect it in the main church. There's a process of growing into what Christ declared you to be. If any man sin, if and when he sins, we have an advocate. We have a lawyer, we have a high priest who's interceding for us, as it were, before God.

The Bible says that Satan is before the throne of God—you can read it in Revelation—day and night and he's accusing you, he's accusing me. He's the accuser of the brethren. That's why we should never do that. If you have fallen into gossip and accusation, you're doing the work of Satan and you ought to stop. Amen? God has a lot of things to say about that and none of them are good. If you can't say anything good then just close your trap. Put the cage there, put the tongue behind it. Amen? And if you're missing bars, hey, you can buy them. They'll install them.

But who are we to criticize someone that God died for and saved by grace? Who are thou, O man, who judges another man's servant? Before the Lord he stands or falls and, yea, the Lord is even able to make him to stand. The accuser of the brethren is accusing you day and night before the Father.

But we have a high priest, an advocate: Jesus the righteous. And he pleads our case. He will say things like, "Satan, yes, that's absolutely true, Pastor Mike did that, but I already paid for that sin. And there's no double jeopardy. It's under the blood." In fact, in Romans chapter 8, Paul picks up on this same thing of Jesus being the advocate in verse 33 and verse 34. Listen to what he says: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?"

And the idea is lay it to a place where it can stick. Who? Who can charge you as a blood-bought, spirit-filled, redeemed child of God? Who can bring something against you that will stick? He says, "because it is God that justifieth." Man, that word "justified" is so important. It doesn't simply mean just like you never sinned; it's much deeper than that. It means just as though you never were a sinner.

When God sees you, he sees no sin or no stain of sin even on you. It's just as though not only did you not sin, you never were a sinner. That's how clean the blood of Jesus Christ and the renewing of the spirit has done for you and me. When God the Father sees us covered in the blood of his son, he doesn't see a sinner that's forgiven; he sees someone who never was a sinner. Can you imagine?

Your sins and your iniquities he remembers no more. That would be necessary for us to go to heaven because the Bible says no unclean thing will enter into his kingdom. So we have to be perfect to get there. Our sins can't just be covered; they have to be removed. In the Old Testament, those sacrifices they brought only covered their sin, *kaphar*. We get almost as a direct transliteration for that act of atonement to cover your sins as we get for "covers" today; they cover you when you're cold.

But John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away, who takes away the very sin nature." You've been given a divine nature in Christ Jesus. That's why he can say, "Your sins and your iniquities I remember no more," because God hath made us through Christ Jesus just as though we never were sinners. We have become the righteousness of God through faith. We're born of the spirit. Who is he that condemneth? Oh, you condemn yourself all the time and you let the enemy condemn you and you condemn others and others condemn you. Stop it!

Because it is Christ that died—yea rather, that is risen again—who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. That doesn't stick. I nailed that to my cross. Satan, you don't have the right to take it down. Those ordinances written against them—and they were right, and they did those things—but I took those things and I nailed them to my cross. How dare you! How dare you!

We have an advocate. Oh, we got a lawyer that's never lost a case. We have a lawyer that all of his clients are guilty, and still never lost a case. And you won't be the first. My little born-again ones, these things I write into you, here's the standard: that you sin not. But if and when any man sin, any woman sin—teenagers sin all the time—we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is, he is, he is—it's in the *aorist* tense in the Greek—he is presently and always will be. He is the propitiation for our sins.

Now again, I've read commentaries to ad nauseam that talk about, well see, he is the one who removed the power and penalty of sin. Yeah, that's expiation. That's not propitiation. Do you understand this morning it's not that Christ just forgave you of your sins through the washing of his blood? You know, if that's all we got was forgiveness of sins, that'd been a lot. We'd all like that. But it goes deeper than that again, it goes deeper than that gang. Listen, it goes deeper than that.

Because propitiation means not only did he remove the power and the penalty of your sin, he removed any ill-will the Father had against you for doing it. Sometimes we feel condemned, don't we? We feel ashamed. We can even feel as Christians as though God is mad at us. How many ever felt that? Or extremely disappointed in us. Or maybe doesn't even want anything more to do with us, that if he'll just allow us into his kingdom, we'll be a good janitor. Listen, the place is not going to get messed up so we don't need janitors when we get there.

We don't. We won't need physicians, we won't need carpenters, we won't need painters, we won't need plumbers, we won't need electricians because we're going to go to a place that nothing wears out. And he's the light and the power of it all and you're not going to have to pay PG&E those absorbent rates anymore for light. The mortgage is paid on your mansion. Your perfect body will never deteriorate. It's going to be a perfect place.

But it's more than just paying for your debt. You have to understand this morning gang, what Jesus did for you was to satisfy the Father concerning any ill-will that he had against you. That's why it says in Romans chapter 5 verse 1, I want you to think about this morning: "Therefore..." because in chapter 4 he's been talking about this righteousness that was imputed to us. In fact, Paul quotes from the Old Testament, it says, "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord refuses to impute sin to him." He won't even write it down anymore. But in the opposite of that, he imputes righteousness to us.

See, you have to understand every nanosecond of every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year for your entire life after you accepted Jesus Christ, his righteousness is being imputed to you. It's flowing from God the Father to you. You have become the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. You can't improve on that. That's what he did for you. And you have been made just as though you never were a sinner. Can you wrap your hands around it this morning?

That's why we should worship him. Amen? Because we drag our carcasses in here and we know we messed up during the week, and we're in awe that God through the work of his son looks at us as though we never ever did sin. And we raise our hands. J. Vernon McGee used to say, "I'll never raise my hands because my hands ain't holy." Then you ain't saved. I know J. Vernon was. But we raise our hands to the Father because he cleansed them, he made them clean.

And not only did he not stop with making our hands clean, he made our hearts clean. He made our souls and our spirits clean. He made us acceptable to the Father. That's what propitiation means. In fact, back in Psalms 51, it says that when I see the soul of my son suffering, I will be satisfied. Satisfied about what? Because God, the Bible says, is angry with those who commit iniquity every day. His holiness, his character, is in opposition to that and it angers him. It angers him.

But because of what Jesus did, he doesn't see us that way anymore. And so he's not angry with us. He never will be. Listen to what Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says: "Therefore being made just as though we never were sinners by faith"—not by our works, by faith in what Jesus did—he says, "we have, we have peace with God." Please understand, this is different than the peace of God. We are promised the peace of God.

Jesus said, "My peace I leave with you, not like the world gave and the world can't take it away." It's a peace that passes all understanding. In fact, the apostle said it's indescribable, the peace that we have. But this is not what he's talking about here. He's talking about God will never be angry with you again. Jesus didn't just pay for your sin, and he didn't just remove the power and influence of sin in your life; he removed any ill-will the Father had toward you for doing it. To the degree and to the extent it's as though you never did it, you never were that. Can you imagine?

He said, "But you don't know what I did in the past." Nor do I want to. This ain't a hairy garbage can lid, don't come and confess to me. I'm not a Catholic; you don't... I'm not going to get in a little room and open a little door and have you tell me stuff. You know, again, when I was in high school I worked for a transmission shop and they were Catholics, and the Catholic priest would come and go partying with us. He'd go partying with us! Smoked dope with him!

And then on Thursday they would say, "Hey, we got to shut the shop down because we got to go down to confessional. You want to go?" Why? He already knows what I did, he did it with me! How's he going to fix that? But I have an advocate with the Father: Jesus the righteous, who's entered into the heavenly realm and now intercedes for me. And I don't need to confess my stuff to any man. We have peace, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen gang, if you can wrap your hands around it, listen guys and gals: because of what Jesus did for you, if you're born of the spirit, if you're washed in his blood, if you're the redeemed of the Lord, if you've been justified by faith when you put your faith in Christ, when you opened your heart and received him as your Lord and Savior, at that moment, he paid every sin that you would ever have or ever did ever commit. It's washed. The Bible says he tears up those books of remembrances. But then you need to know from that moment on he will never be angry with you again.

Because he became the propitiation for your sins. He removed the stain of it, the penalty of it, and even the emotions that were wrapped around it. My little born-again ones, these things I write into you that you sin not. But if and when any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the absolute satisfying of the righteous demands of God for you and me.

He satisfied it, he propitiated it. He propitiated our sins—and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. In other words, what Jesus did on a cross, the effectiveness and the sufficiency of his blood and of his sacrifice has the capacity to forgive every human being past, present, and future on the entire globe. That's why I'm not a Calvinist; I don't believe it's limited atonement.

Because the Bible does nothing about limited atonement. The Bible knows about "whosoever" will come to him, he won't turn you away. And whosoever puts their faith in him, listen, he will give them the gift of eternal life. We're "whosoevers." How many's a whosoever? You know, I'm glad that it wasn't restricted because what he did on Calvary's cross is sufficient.

It has the ability to cleanse any man. The last church I pastored a long time ago, there was a lady in there that her grandmother had gone through the Holocaust. And I made a statement because I couldn't think of any more wicked person on the planet—I can think of some now, but I couldn't back then—than Adolf Hitler. Killed over 6 million Jews.

And I made the statement that the blood of Jesus Christ and the grace of God was sufficient that if Adolf Hitler would have confessed his sins, he could have been forgiven. And they left the church over that. Now I called them and I met with them and I said, "Why would you leave the church over that?" "Well, Adolf Hitler..." I said, "Yeah, that's why I chose him as an example because you don't get any worse than that guy. But is not the blood of Christ sufficient? Is not the work of Christ on the cross enough?

Does not the Bible say"—and I quoted it right here—"is it not enough to cleanse the whole world if they would come to him?" So that ought to tell you, you know, there's no reason not to come. Your stuff is small compared to some other people's stuff. And theirs is big compared to other people's stuff. But anyway, he says, listen, for the sins of the whole world. Now, we can't go hardly any further than that, can we? Ah, okay. Let's just do two more verses. Can we do two more verses?

How about three? Three, four. Four verses and we'll be done. Because we're just where we ended last week! How did I back up that far? Oh man. Anyway, verse 3 says: "And hereby we know." You see, we can know that we know him. How do we know? If we keep his commandments. What is one of his commandments? That when we fall into sin, we confess it. We ask not only for forgiveness, but it breaks our heart, we want to be cleansed of it. That's a commandment.

What's another commandment? That you should love the Lord your God—what is the greatest?—with your whole heart. And it should break our heart when we break his heart. And we should love one another, he says is the second commandment that can't be separated from the first. So what is the greatest commandment? That we love. We love him. Love is a relational term. And if you love him, you don't want to break his heart, you don't want to sin against him. It's not mechanical.

Here it is, another one of the false confessions: "He that saith, 'I know him,' and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word"—and it doesn't mean you're perfect; part of keeping his word is what we just read earlier: brokenness and repentance and a heart that hates sin and loves righteousness—"but whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected," this relationship.

"Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith"—there's another false confession—"he abideth in him ought himself also"—and here is the commandment—"we should walk even as he walked." We should look like Jesus, we should act like Jesus. That's our example, that's our model, that's our goal. That Christ would be formed in us. Amen?

That day by day and moment by moment, that we would be being changed from glory to glory; he'd be changing us. That we wouldn't be the same today as we were yesterday. There would be growth. You know, Peter ends his second epistle by saying, "Grow in grace, grow in knowledge." We should be growing. The whole idea of walking means you're making progression. You've left one place and you're walking towards some other place. You're moving in the direction.

You're moving in the same direction that Jesus moved. You're moving with Jesus. Jesus is the forerunner; he's already gone up into the heavens to prepare a place for us. But we're moving in his direction. Listen, we're—as we're going to see, we did get that far this morning—but we're going to abandon this world because we don't love this world anymore. It's not precious to us or valuable to us anymore. No, the thing that is valuable to us is heaven, eternal life.

We know that we're moving toward that. We're walking as Jesus walked. We're headed in the same direction, we're living the same lifestyle, we have the same mindset, we have the same heart. We're moving in that direction because that's what's in our heart. So John would say concerning authentic Christianity, let's tie a knot in it this morning: if you say—and there are a lot of people who do—that you have fellowship, *koinōnia*, oneness with him, like this marriage covenant relationship, and you walk in darkness, you're still living for the world, then you're a liar. Truth is not in you.

But if you will confess your sins—there's something that's appalling about it to you so you immediately confess it to the Father—if you will confess it, agree with him quickly he was right, you were wrong, then he will be faithful and justified because of what his son did to not only forgive you, but to cleanse you. That's the heart of the believer. The believer just doesn't want forgiveness, he doesn't want just fire insurance; he doesn't want it in him anymore. How many feel that way? I just don't want it in me anymore. And one of these days it won't be. You're leaving that part behind.

But if you justify what you're doing and say it's not sin, then the truth is not in you. My little born-again ones—how many born again this morning? I like that he calls us little born-again ones, children, because sometimes we can behave that way. My little born-again children, I write to you the standard. The standard, the goal, the desire, the passion should be: not to sin. But when you sin, you have an advocate with the Father.

In fact, when your advocate, your lawyer, gets done pleading your case, then he steps around the desk there and he walks up to the judge's seat and says, "Hey Dad." Your lawyer, his dad is the judge! "Hey Dad, they're already forgiven." "Yeah, I know. You already won the case." Not guilty! And we leave that courtroom justified. I write unto you that you sin not, but if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father Jesus the righteous who has become the propitiation for your sin.

And not only for yours; anyone who would come. No one should be left out. Whosoever comes, you can have that. And this is how we know that we're born of the spirit: because we keep his commandments and they're not grievous to us. Amen? Amen? Well we're going to have to pick up there; we got as far as verse 6. So we'll be in verse 7 where he says, "I write unto you a new commandment" next Sunday morning. Let's stand, let's get the worship team back up here, we'll sing a song.

How many are glad that Jesus rose from the dead, which proved that he was a life-giving spirit? How many are glad that he's up there right now interceding for you and me? Listen, some days he can't get to your case because he's working on mine all day. That's how I feel some days. Amen? How many are glad that Jesus Christ, what he did on Calvary's cross has made you just as though you never were a sinner? And the Father loves you now.

There's nothing against you and the Father. Don't let the devil condemn you. Paul would say in Romans chapter 8, "There is now therefore no condemnation to those that are what? In Christ Jesus." So stop condemning yourself. The Bible says that we have access. We have access to his throne of grace to receive help and mercy in a time of need. What's he talking about there? When we fail, we have access.

The door will never be shut to us again, right into the very throne room of grace to receive help and mercy in a time of need. But we go in with the right heart: "Lord, this breaks my heart as much as I've broken yours. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm not just asking for forgiveness, cleanse me of this thing. Scrub it out of me."

Can a leopard change its spots? Jeremiah said. Or an Ethiopian his skin? The answer's no, but God said, "I will give you a new heart." He can do it, amen? And that's why Paul in Romans chapter 12 says if we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto Lord, which is our reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. How does that happen? By putting ourselves on an altar and having God do surgery. Amen?

How many need that this morning? Yeah, we all do, don't we? We all do. Let me ask you this: is there anybody in here this morning that's never opened their hearts to him and accepted what Jesus did for your sins? You know about him, but you haven't invited him into your heart. Is there anybody here that wants to do that this morning?

Because it's so simple. In fact, you can't even raise your hand unless the Lord's already stirring in your heart. Isn't that interesting? So anybody want in that ain't in? You know you ain't in, you know you've just been religious, but you want in. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning. We thank you, Father, for your grace. We have no idea this side of heaven how potent and powerful it really is. We'll see it one day. We look through a glass dimly today. But Lord, we want to thank you. We want to thank you for what you have done. Someone ought to write a song, "What you have done," we'd sing it here in this church. What you have done. Amazing. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. And all God's kids would say: Amen. Let's worship the Lord.